MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alabama’s capital-city newspaper has published an apology for its “shameful” coverage of mob violence against African-Americans, delivering the message on the same day that the first memorial to America’s lynching victims opened.
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alabama’s capital-city newspaper has published an apology for its “shameful” coverage of mob violence against African-Americans, delivering the message on the same day that the first memorial to America’s lynching victims opened.
The Montgomery Advertiser’s editorial published Thursday says “we were wrong” for “careless” and dehumanizing coverage of lynchings from the 1870s through the 1950s.
The newspaper was founded in 1829 and edited by a Confederate veteran after the Civil War.
Executive editor Bro Krift said the paper was “clearly complicit” for often assuming the victim was guilty of a crime and not holding the lynching perpetrators accountable.
Legal advocacy organization Equal Justice Initiative opened a memorial to victims of racial-terror lynchings Thursday. The organization identified about 4,400 victims nationwide, including more than 300 in Alabama, between 1877 and 1950.
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